Gamel originally suffered the injury early in camp, but he probably made it worse by returning to action too soon. Keep in mind that while he’ll be sidelined from baseball activity for six weeks, the timeline for him to return to game action will likely be longer.

“Then he has to get ready for games from there, so we could be talking
about closer to eight to nine weeks total before he’s 100 percent,”
Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash said.

It’s a tough blow for Gamel, who similarly missed out an opportunity to impress the Brewers last spring due to a shoulder impingement. The 24-year-old started last season in the minors and was pretty underwhelming upon a promotion in May, batting just .242/.338/.422 with five homers and 20 RBI in 128 at-bats.

Because his bat has been considered more of an asset than his glove, the question has always been where he’ll fit in on defense. For now, Casey McGehee has the starting third base job in Milwaukee, blocking his path to the major leagues. Perhaps when Gamel returns, the Brewers will begin to entertain the idea of transitioning him to the outfield.

The Cardinals have always emphasized building from within. In the 2016-17 offseason, however, they may end up being one of the bigger free agent buyers. At least according to some informed speculation.

The Cardinals are already losing their first round pick due to the Fowler signing, so any other top free agent won’t cost them more than the money he’s owed. And as far as money goes, the Cardinals have a great deal of it, despite being a small market team. They have a billion dollar TV deal coming online and Matt Holliday and Jaime Garcia are off the payroll now. Spending big on a free agent or three would not cripple them or anything.

Encarnacion or Trumbo would be first baseman, which wold fly in the face of the Cards’ move of Matt Carpenter to first base (and, at least as far as Encarnacion goes, would fly in the face of good defense). Getting either of them would push Carpenter back to second, displacing Kolten Wong, or over to third, displacing Jhonny Peralta. If you’re going to do that, I’d say that Turner would make more sense, but what do I know?

Either way, the Cardinals may be entering a pretty interesting phase of their offseason now. And an unfamiliar one as, quite possibly, the top free agent buyer on the market.

There is literally nothing you could tell me that the incoming administration is considering which would shock me anymore. As such, I saw this story when I woke up this morning, blinked once, took a sip of coffee, closed the browser window and just went on with my morning, as desensitized as a wisdom tooth about to be yanked.

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports that Former Red Sox, Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine is on a short-list of candidates for the job of United States Ambassador to Japan:

The 66-year-old, who currently serves as Sacred Heart University’s athletics director, has engaged in preliminary discussions with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team regarding the position.

Valentine managed the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League for six seasons, leading the team to a championship in 2005. He also knows the current prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, as both went to USC. Assuming championship teams meet the country’s leader in Japan like they do in the United States, Valentine has at least twice the amount of experience with top political leaders than does, say, Ned Yost, so that’s something.

The former manager, more importantly, is friends with Donald Trump’s brother, with the two of them going way back. Which, given how this transition is going, seems like a far more important set of qualifications than anything else on this list.